Solar Home Project: No Easy Answers

We've had perfect spring weather of late; lots of sun and just enough rain to keep things green and get the garden going. We've been using electricity indiscriminately: Table saw, vacuum cleaner, fridge. It's all fair game when we have this much sun.

Got a great comment to my last post regarding gas prices:

It is not about $3 a gallon gas, it is about the people who make $5.15 hour and it takes them an entire day of work at 8 hours a day to fill up a 10 gallon tank with gas. It is about the college student that is living on loans and can't afford to fill up there car with $3 a gallon gas instead of eating a somewhat healthy meal. I know for me, I am a college student that goes to class 35 hours a week and I can not afford to fill my truck (yes i drive a truck because i actually need to have a bed that hauls work material) and still be able to feed myself.

This reader is absolutely right: The problem is far more pervasive than $3 gas. We've built our entire economy on the assumption of cheap energy, and there's no painless way to wean ourselves off cheap oil. It's not as if everyone can just ditch their truck and go out and buy a hybrid. For one, some people genuinely need a truck; for another, many people are struggling just to pay for their current rig. Selling it at a loss and picking up a new-ish car that costs upwards of $20k isn't feasible, no matter how expensive gas gets.

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The same could apply to alternative energy for the home. We have our system in place; it's paid for and it works. If we were connected to the utility grid, there's no way we'd be able to shell out 25 grand solar pv and hot water and wind. That's not to say we wouldn't want to, and it's not to say that people that CAN afford it shouldn't, it's just to say that grid electricity – even as it becomes increasingly expensive – is pretty darn cheap. For now.